Curse Mark: Corpse Stitcher

"Toad?"

Just as Xiao Ran was about to ask for the reason, he suddenly felt his body tighten behind him, a force pulling him backward.

Li Ji's figure rapidly receded. Li Ji's gaunt face remained expressionless as he muttered to himself, "That's assuming you survive first."

"Whoosh!!"

Inside the coffin, Xiao Ran's eyelids snapped open. He instinctively tried to sit up, but as he raised his head, he bumped into the coffin.

With a dull "clang!", the pain made Xiao Ran's eyes water.

This intense pain also sobered Xiao Ran up. He took out the diary from his pocket, feeling a lingering warmth from it.

"Did Yang Xuan help me?"

Xiao Ran secretly rejoiced that he had kept the diary. If it hadn't pulled him up, his soul would have probably sunk into the bottomless abyss by now. He also felt a sense of relief. No wonder the woman in white pointed at him and said there was a ghost after they came out of the cellar; she was probably referring to this diary.

"Clang, clang..."

At this moment, a ding-dong sound came from Xiao Ran's pocket. He reached in and rummaged around, finding several gleaming gold bars in his hand.

Seeing these gleaming gold bars, Xiao Ran's expression changed, and he immediately threw them aside.

Logically, these seven gold bars had just endangered his life, so they now belonged to him.

But after being bitten by a snake once, one fears a well rope for ten years. Having just suffered a great loss, how could Xiao Ran dare to keep these things on him? What if that old hag had other tricks up her sleeve and used these gold bars to harm him again? He would regret it to the ends of the earth then.

After discarding the gold bars from his pocket, Xiao Ran frowned, pondering how to break out. Just then, he heard the villagers' whispers growing louder outside, and the sound of a suona could be faintly heard.

Simultaneously, blood-red lines suddenly appeared before Xiao Ran's eyes.

[Triggered Side Quest: Soul Snatching]

Quest Description: You failed to have your soul snatched according to the Old Woman's plan, causing the soul-returning ritual to go awry. Li Shang's soul is now reviving in its original body. You must fulfill three conditions proposed by Li Shang, otherwise, he will immediately corpseify and transform into a zombie, tearing you to shreds.

You also have two chances to refuse Li Shang.

Note: Do not rashly tamper with the corpse, or Li Shang's corpse transformation will be triggered prematurely.

Quest Hint: If you can repair Li Shang's body before he wakes up, the soul-returning ritual will end early.

Quest Reward: F-class

(Note: Settlement will occur after completing this Lost City.)

Seeing the quest presented before him, Xiao Ran's face turned deathly pale. He couldn't help but curse inwardly, "Go to hell!"

This quest looked like it was designed to kill him.

But after complaining, Xiao Ran immediately perked up. He now had two choices. The first was to try and complete the quest; if he failed, he would surely die. The second was to rush out and fight those people outside.

But either way, it seemed like suicide. Although he could gain the power of [Evil God Xing Xie] through self-harm, this method was also situational. With so many villagers outside, even if he cut himself, he might not be able to defeat them. Moreover, there was an Old Woman with strange abilities in charge.

After a brief comparison, Xiao Ran could only take out his phone, turn on the flashlight, and prepare to complete the quest first.

Using the flashlight's beam, Xiao Ran leaned over the corpse.

This corpse had been buried for who knew how long, but strangely, it hadn't rotted. The flesh just didn't look fresh, like a decade-old corpse frozen in a morgue.

"This incision..."

Xiao Ran carefully examined the cut on Li Shang's neck and found that it was still neat. However, he couldn't figure out how such a knife wound was made. After all, his profession was corpse repair, and when it came to examining wounds, he was far less professional than forensic doctors.

Repairing the corpse wouldn't be difficult, but the tools...

At this moment, Xiao Ran smacked his head. "How could I forget about this thing?"

Xiao Ran quickly turned around and rummaged in the coffin. Before long, he found the backpack he had earlier.

"Thank heavens. It's fortunate that 'kind person' threw the backpack in as well."

Before leaving, he had brought the red lacquered chest left by his grandfather. It contained old items from his grandfather's time as a Corpse Stitcher. Although the tools were old, they were all useful.

Xiao Ran took out the box and reached inside.

Just then, his hand touched the metal plate on top. The metal plate, originally wrapped in red cloth, suddenly flickered a few times, followed by an intense burning sensation from the plate.

Pain!

Xiao Ran's first reaction was to pull his hand away, but the metal plate stuck to his hand like a branding iron.

At this moment, a dark red smoke suddenly emerged from the metal plate. Amidst the swirling smoke, something seemed to be forming. Xiao Ran's eyes widened as he saw the smoke gradually condense into a square-like object resembling a contract, filled with crooked characters.

Then, the characters on the contract twisted together, like a venomous snake burrowing into his palm.

Xiao Ran watched in horror as the characters writhed like living things, slowly seeping into his skin. As the text penetrated, memories that did not belong to him forcefully flooded his mind, causing a severe headache.

Xiao Ran felt as if a catfish had burrowed into his brain and was churning it around.

He closed his eyes, enduring the headache, and tried to understand what was in his mind.

Gradually, a bizarre totem appeared in Xiao Ran's mind.

[Curse Mark: Corpse Stitcher]

E-class (Can devour other sequence curse marks for enhancement, or combine with other sequences for promotion.)

Attributes: Constitution +5, Strength +5

Exclusive Trait: Master-level Suturing Technique

Slight resistance to debuffs such as hypnosis, illusions, charm, and curses.

When the holder uses a Cursed Object, the traits of the Curse Mark will combine with the Cursed Object, deriving unique abilities exclusive to you.

(Note: The same Cursed Object will produce entirely different abilities when it comes into contact with different Curse Marks.)

What is a Curse Mark?

A moment of confusion arose in Xiao Ran's heart, but before he could process the information, a message soon appeared in his mind.

"Special Cursed Object [Calamity Suppressing Token] detected. Activate!"

Xiao Ran lowered his head and looked at the iron token in his hand.

"Could it be this thing?"

Xiao Ran's heart stirred, and he tried to activate this item. No matter what it was, it was ultimately something he brought himself. In this damned place, having an extra bit of power would be best.

As Xiao Ran confirmed, a chill emanated from the iron token in his hand. The dark red Curse Mark that had just burrowed into his flesh burrowed out from under his skin again, entwining with the iron token.

Then, a piece of information appeared in his mind.

F-class Cursed Object: Calamity Suppressing Token · Corpse Stitcher

Energy Value: 0/100

Suppresses calamities and resolves difficulties, leading to promotion and wealth. When you are stitching corpses, you can enjoy the following two privileges.

Privilege 1: Calamity Suppression. Forcefully suppress evil spirits and malevolent entities, significantly weakening their power.

Privilege 2: Spirit Seizing. Upon completing repairs, you can read the deceased's memories from their lifetime and acquire one ability from the deceased's lifetime.

(Note: Abilities exceeding the Cursed Object's own level cannot be acquired.)

For every corpse stitched, energy value will be obtained based on the difficulty of the corpse, thereby upgrading the Calamity Suppressing Token's grade.

Duration: 1 hour.

Cooldown: 2 hours.

After seeing the information that appeared in his mind, Xiao Ran was first surprised, then glanced sideways at the corpse in front of him, narrowed his eyes, and sneered, "Perfect, I'll practice on you!"

Immediately, Xiao Ran bent over, straddled Li Shang's corpse, and took out steel nails, smashing them into the bone below the neck.

Li Shang's head had been severed, the cut was very clean, but repairing it was not that easy. Rushing the stitching would cause the flesh and skin to misalign and deform under the force of gravity.

Steel nails were needed to fix the head and neck first, then proceed with stitching.

It looked complicated, but it was actually simple. After all, he was repairing a corpse, not performing complex surgery.

As Xiao Ran worked, a progress bar appeared before him. The higher the repair progress, the faster the progress bar grew.

Suddenly! Li Shang's body trembled slightly. His eyes slowly opened, and a cold light flickered in his gray pupils.

Xiao Ran was startled by this sudden change and stopped what he was doing, watching Li Shang warily.

Li Shang's first words were: "I want to eat!!"

As Li Shang spoke, his eyes stared intently at Xiao Ran, his skin began to darken rapidly, and even his fingernails began to grow at a visible speed.

"There's food!"

Xiao Ran initially wanted to refuse. Where would he find food for him in this coffin? Moreover, what this guy meant by food was probably not as simple as just wanting to eat.

However, he remembered something in his backpack.

He casually pulled over his backpack, took out a butter candle, and stuffed it directly into Li Shang's mouth.

"Don't be shy, eat more!"

Li Shang opened his mouth wide, staring at Xiao Ran with deep eyes. He didn't want to eat candles, of course. But for some reason, the candle tasted like malt candy once it was in his mouth, becoming more delicious the more he ate. It was sticky and gooey, making it impossible to stop.

As the saying goes, gods smell the fragrance, ghosts eat candles. This butter candle was specially prepared by a second-rate craftsman in the past to prevent corpse transformation.

It was mixed with butter and malt candy, becoming stickier the longer it sat, gumming up the mouth so that not a single word could be spoken.

As Li Shang ate the candle, his originally dark skin began to gradually return to normal, and even his fingernails returned to their normal appearance.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran's eyes curved slightly, and he thought, "It seems this guy isn't that difficult to deal with!"

Li Shang stared wide-eyed, only able to gnaw desperately at the candle in his mouth. After finally finishing the candle, just as he was about to make his second request, Xiao Ran quickly took another candle from his backpack and, without any hesitation, poked it directly into Li Shang's throat.

Li Shang: ???

Xiao Ran noticed Li Shang's gaze, grinned, and produced five or six more candles: "You just keep eating, I'll make sure you're full!"